We hate to make you feel like a loser with your 1-point-whatever Mbps upstream data card there, but over in Italy, Ericsson and 3 are doing everything they can to put that card out of business. It appears that through nothing more than a series of software and infrastructure tweaks, the companies have managed to establish uplink data connections at a whopping 5.8Mbps. Oh, and get this -- it's not some fancy, futuristic trial, either, this was all done using 3's existing commercial network. Good news for Italians, and ultimately, good news for anyone that's not looking forward to waiting for LTE to take over.

[Via Phone Scoop]

So it turns out Skype was more than a mere experiment for 3, apparently, seeing how the FCC just approved its rumored new Skypephone -- though contrary to what we'd heard, the documentation indicates that the candybar might end up being called the IM2, not the S2. Crucial difference, we know. Anyhow, the phone sports a 3.2 megapixel cam, HSDPA (up from the original's mere UMTS), and features a rather attractive brushed metal backing, not bad for a phone that's theoretically designed to save you cash by routing calls over the internets. Still no launch details for the thing just yet, but at least we now know we'll be able to use it in the good ol' US of A without drawing the FCC's ire.

The Symbian Foundation's founding member list was nothing to sneeze at, featuring the likes of Vodafone, Samsung, LG, AT&T, and of course Nokia, Sony Ericsson, and Motorola -- but the initiative is getting even stronger here with the addition of a couple other major carrier players, a chipset giant, and a heaping handful of software firms. From the carrier side, 3 and America Movil get added to the list; Marvell joins Texas Instruments from the silicon side of things, and the app developers now include Aplix, EB, EMCC Software, Sasken, and TietoEnator. We're not going to lie, we're not familiar with some of these devs -- but when you're fighting juggernauts like Android and LiMo to win the hearts and minds of the open-platform public, you need all the ammo you can get.

Not quite a year since the original Skypephone made a minor splash across the pond comes word that the second iteration is nearly ready to be removed from the oven. Slated to launch on 3 (of course), this candybar-styled handset will reportedly boast HSDPA connectivity, a 2.2-inch QVGA display, a respectable 3.2-megapixel camera, integrated Skype and "built–in modem drivers so you can use it as a dongle for your PC or Mac." We're particularly fond of that last part -- are any of you other carriers listening here? Check it out sometime in the mysterious future for a currently undisclosed price.

[Thanks, Linsey]

The countries continue to fall ahead of Apple's presumed June 9th, 3G iPhone announcement at WWDC. This time it's Hong Kong and Macau -- foothold populations as Apple eyes the big Japanese, Russian, and Chinese prizes which have thus far avoided Jobs' charm RDF.

[Thanks, Patrick C and Edmond]

Why can't we just have and enjoy the latest, greatest pre-4G technology for a few frickin' minutes without having our collective attentions immediately redirected to the next latest, greatest thing? Qualcomm has gone and spoiled all the fun by announcing that it'll be setting up HSPA+ trials with Australia's Telstra, Italy's Telecom Italia, Hutchison 3 in the UK, and Telefonica this year to deliver downlink speeds up to 28Mbps as an evolutionary upgrade to the networks' already-deployed HSPA systems. If all goes well, Qualcomm expects that the technology could be commercialized as early as 2009, potentially putting it head-to-head with the very first volleys in the race to true 4G via LTE. 28Mbps, 173Mbps... we think we know which one we'd rather have in our backyard.

[Via MobileBurn]

Because the mobile industry isn't nearly monetized enough as it is (we jest, we jest), big players have come out of the woodwork at Mobile World Congress this year to announce some pretty heavy initiatives with the goal of revolutionizing the way we're hit up with advertising on our phones. Nokia has actually come forward with two mobile ad headliners: first, the Nokia Media Network is now official, bringing together ads on Nokia's own sites as well as 70-plus publishers' and carriers' properties under a single umbrella, all made possible by the company's 2007 acquisition of Enpocket; second, Nokia Siemens Networks has announced a turnkey solution for folks wishing to bite the targeted mobile ad bullet, spanning from consulting to infrastructure and ad delivery. Meanwhile, the big five carriers in the UK -- Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile, O2, and 3 -- have announced that they're working with the GSM Association to develop a common standard for measuring mobile ad reach, a marked change in some of the carriers' typical policies of keeping customer metrics well out of reach of potential advertisers and therefore limiting interest. One of those carriers, O2, has separately revealed that it has launched its own mobile advertising service (take that, Nokia Media Network) following a 2007 trial that will allow advertisers to get really, really down and dirty with their target demos -- age, location, browsing behavior, and so on -- through a system that generated a 6 percent click-through rate in testing. As long as the average phone display stays QVGA or lower, we're pretty sure we're not down with teeny, tiny banner ads all up in our business, but it's the wave of the future, it seems.

[Via mocoNews]

Read - Nokia Media Network
Read - Nokia Siemens Networks
Read - UK mobile companies to develop advertising standards
Read - O2 sets sights on mobile advertising market

When the mobile industry turns to college programs for design guidance, the results can be... shall we say, unusual. British carrier 3 recently enlisted the help of the Royal College of Art for a look at what phones of the future might look like and do, and needless to say, the results span the full gamut from mild to wild; on the mild side, for example, is the MÜ slider (pictured) that takes social networking to an extreme by showing all of the user's networks as points on a sphere -- totally realistic, totally believable, and probably destined for reality in the not-too-distant future. Moving to the wild end of the spectrum, the Auxo actually changes shape based on your profile. We don't see that one hitting shelves any time soon, but hey, keep on dreaming, guys.

[Via Shiny Shiny]

Despite an ongoing spat between the UK's 3 and the whole lot of its larger rivals, the scrappy 3G-focused carrier has managed to bury the hatchet long enough with T-Mobile to ink an agreement to share some towers. Virtually every carrier across the world with WCDMA capability is struggling to find the balance between buildout -- an extraordinarily expensive proposition -- and profit, and it seems that collaborating with even the fiercest rivals might be the way to go in the interest of expanding footprint rapidly, keeping existing customers happy, and winning the occasional data-hungry conquest. Not to mention that Orange and Vodafone have already gone public with a similar agreement, and when you're competing with a juggernaut like Voda in any segment, joining forces sounds like a good idea.

The underdog in Britain's mobile market, 3, is accusing its larger rivals of trying to shut it out of the market to the tune of £250 million (about $500 million), taking its sob story all the way to the UK's court system. The claim revolves around a series of meetings in 2005 of the Operator Steering Group -- a group to which Vodafone, T-Mobile, Orange, O2, and 3 all belonged -- in which everyone but 3 voted to keep the nation's number transfer delay at five days, despite the fact that the process takes mere hours in other European countries. 3 claims that the larger carriers are using this excruciatingly long window to convince folks porting their numbers to 3 to stay by throwing fantastic discount packages their way. On the surface it all sounds like a plea for government help when the little guy finds itself unable to compete, but who knows, maybe there's some actual collusion going on here.

[Via textually.org]

Though it once appeared as if DVB-SH was headed for high times in Europe, DVB-H eventually won out as the nationwide standard, but that certainly doesn't mean other standards can't compete within the region. Reportedly, Alcatel-Lucent has agreed to launch the first trial of the technology in Italy with RAI and 3 Italia, and while DVB-SH would likely be more costly to implement due to its position in the spectrum, European telecoms are grasping for options to satisfy the growing desire for mobile TV. If all goes as planned, the trials will take place in Turin over the next few months, but it wasn't clear when Jane / John Doe would be called in to participate. Also of note, a cellphone provider has yet to be selected, but it sounds like Samsung and Sagem both made it onto the short list.

[Via mocoNews]

Right on schedule, you're looking at the just announced co-branded Skype phone: the 3 Skypephone. Sure, mobile Skype clients are already in worldwide use. This, however, marks the first time a carrier has fully embraced Skype which traditionally has been seen as a threat to carrier tariff schemes. Under 3's plan, Skype VoIP calls and IMs are free to any other Skype user just as long as you're under contract or top up your pay as your go account with at least £10 (about $21) each month. The £49 (about $101) 3G phone with 2 megapixel camera and microSD slot will be available in the UK on Friday; Australia, Austria, Denmark, Hong Kong, Italy, Ireland, Macau and Sweden sometime later in the year. Wanna see it in a video? Sure you do, locked-and-loaded right after the break.

[Via T3]

We aren't etching this in stone just yet, but we've seen numerous reports claiming that the recent partnership between 3 and Skype will soon lead to an actual piece of hardware. Reportedly, the 3Skypephone will be available on October 29th "for a pre-launch," and will be officially official on November 2nd. Specs wise, it should feature free calls to other Skype users / 3Skypephone owners, a two-megapixel camera, video capturing and an MP3 player. Interested consumers can supposedly choose from three different colors, and it should be available on the "£12 ($25) Mix and Match 100 tariff which offers 100 minutes or texts or any mix of the two." Ah well, at least we've but a few days left to find out for sure, eh?

[Via UK Phone News]

Details are pretty light on this one, but Reuters is now reporting that Skype and UK cellphone operator 3 are currently working on a new handset that promises to "make Internet calls mobile." According to Reuters, the phone is expected to "work in the normal way," but also include an option to let users bypass all those hefty cellphone charges and contact other Skype users directly in order to save a few bucks. We assume that means Skype will operate over 3G data, although that's yet to be confirmed by either party. We should know more soon enough, however, as the handset is apparently on track to be released before the end of the year.

Looks like those that call Down Under home have been blessed with yet another option in the smartphone department, as HTC has apparently launched the P3600i in your neck of the woods. Deemed an "HTC P3600 with a faster CPU and more ROM," this Windows Mobile 6 device looks to be an Asia-Pacific exclusive for now, and touts quad-band GSM, 802.11g, a two-megapixel camera, Bluetooth 2.0, 160MB of internal memory, a miniSD expansion slot, and UMTS / HSDPA to boot. Best of all, it's available right now on 3.

[Via UnwiredView]